A Drug Enforcement Agent watches as Hen Cohen, from American Locksmith breaks the lock on the door at Miami-Dade Medical Solutions in Miami. / Allison Diaz

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Two former U.S. Army snipers, including a 20-year veteran labeled a "contract killer," and a retired German sharpshooter have been charged with plotting the murders-for-hire of an American drug agent and an informant in Africa, the Justice Department announced Friday.

The planned assassinations, which were never carried out, were part of a conspiracy to fly hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the United States from Colombian drug traffickers who were actually confidential sources for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Two other ex-military snipers, one from Germany and the other from Poland, were arrested in Estonia and charged only with drug crimes as part of the scheme, which stretched from Asia to Africa and to the Caribbean. The plot leaders decided the pair would "not be able to handle" the killings, which were called "bonus jobs," the indictment states.

Prosecutors portrayed the five as ruthless mercenaries.

The "bone-chilling allegations read like they were ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement announcing the indictment.

"Three of the defendants were ready, willing and eager to take cold hard cash to commit the cold-blooded murders of a DEA agent and an informant," Bharara said.

The mastermind was identified as 48-year-old Joseph Manuel Hunter, who was a sniper instructor and a senior drill sergeant while serving in the Army from 1983 to 2004. His aliases include Rambo, Frank Robinson and Jim Riker.

Prosecutors said that since he left the service, Hunter has been a "contract killer" who has "successfully arranged for the murder of a number of people."

Hunter, a resident of Thailand, was arrested Thursday in Bangkok and handed over to DEA agents at Don Meaung International Airport. He is expected to appear in federal court in New York on Saturday.

The other American defendant, Timothy Vamvakias, served in the U.S. Army from 1991 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2004. He was a sergeant, serving first in South Korea and later in Puerto Rico as a military police officer.

Dennis Gogel was a sniper in the German army from 2007 to 2010 and served in Kosovo.

Vamvakias and Gogel were arrested Wednesday in Liberia and brought to New York. They appeared in court Thursday.

The alleged drug-smuggling plot began last year, and discussions about the assassinations began in May in Thailand. The confidential sources secretly recorded those meetings, according to the indictment.

"That's fun, actually for me, that's fun. I love this work," Gogel was quoted as saying about the proposed killings.

On another recording, Hunter described arranging the murders of two female real estate agents.

For killing the DEA agent and the informant, Hunter, Vamvakias and Gogel were to be paid a total of $700,000, with Hunter receiving a $100,000 bonus for organizing the hit. The three discussed using submachine guns, pistols, silencers, cyanide, a grenade and latex masks to change their racial appearance.

During an August meeting recorded with audio and video, Gogel said the killings could be made to look like a street crime -- "like a bad robbery or anything."

The indictment says that Hunter told his recruits that they would be working for a Colombian cartel and that they could expect to see "tons of cocaine and millions of dollars."